Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Fresno Trustees Vote 6-1 to Put Cops Back on Middle School Campuses
NANCY WEBSITE HEADSHOT 1
By Nancy Price, Multimedia Journalist
Published 3 years ago on
June 16, 2022

Share

 

Twenty months after allowing a middle school police officer contract with Fresno Police Department to lapse, the Fresno Unified School Board voted 6-1 to bring cops back to the campuses.

Amy Idsvoog, the district’s executive officer for health services, safety and emergency response, said the first officers will go to Fort Miller, Tenaya, Terronez, Kings Canyon, and Gaston middle schools. Five more officers will go to Ahwahnee, Tioga, Scandinavian, Tehipite, and Sequoia after winter break, and to the remaining middle schools at the start of the 2023-24 school year, Idsvoog said.

Wawona Middle School is in a county island and is served by a sheriff’s school resource officer, she said.

The contract also provides for one supervising sergeant, who will start in August, she said.

The schools were selected based on multiple data points, including calls for service from Fresno police, emergency calls to the district’s support team, and Gaggle data “regarding possible student situations,” Idsvoog said.

Gaggle is an online tool that monitors student emails, Microsoft Teams chats, and the district’s OneDrive in search of key phrases, including possible self-harm, bullying and harassment, and inappropriate sexual content.

The officers are being phased in as Fresno Police Department staffing increases. The police department also is providing two school resource officers for Central Unified middle schools for the first time, with plans to add a third officer in the future as staffing is available.

Under Fresno Unified’s prior contract with Fresno Police, the officers served as school neighborhood resource officers, splitting their time 50-50 with the schools and neighborhoods. Under the contract amendment, the officers will be on the campuses full time, as they are on high school campuses. The contract amendment’s cost for the first five officers, sergeant, and vehicle leases: $1,017,761.

Contract Lapsed During Pandemic

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in May 2020 that sparked public protests nationwide, there was growing community pressure to remove police officers from Fresno school campuses. The board decided, in part because schools were still closed due to the pandemic, not to renew the middle school contract.

In 2021 the board renewed the contract to have resource officers on high school campuses.

People protesting the police contract brought signs to the board room on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. (GV Wire/Nancy Price)

Some of the same people and organizations who had protested police on campus, such as Barrios Unidos, were at Wednesday’s meeting to lobby for the board to stick to its October 2020 decision. Speakers urged the board to invest in psychologists, counselors, and other support services instead of in law enforcement.

Likewise, several people who in recent months have called for more security on campuses spoke Wednesday in favor of renewing the contract to make schools safer.

Idsvoog noted that students reported in surveys that they felt more vulnerable when police officers were not on campus.

Board Clerk Veva Islas, who was in Washington, D.C. and was attending the board meeting by telephone, said she remained concerned over the officers’ training and over whether school officials would take every possible step to give students the services and supports needed to prevent the need for intervention by police officers. Islas cast the lone no vote against returning police to middle school campuses.

Idsvoog said that officers will participate in both cultural proficiency and restorative practices training.

Under the district’s rules of engagement, the school resource officers are not responsible for discipline or for minor incidents, including a mutual fight between two students, but would take action in major crimes, including fights with injury, she noted.

Car Leases Questioned

In reviewing the amended contract, Islas questioned why the district would have to pay for the lease of squad cars as well as the salary and benefits of the officers.

Deputy Chief Mike Reid responded that the officers would need a secure site on campus to store any equipment that might be needed to deal with safety, security, and medical incidents.

“What we found out by dissecting what happened in Uvalde, there’s some issues of entry,” Reid said, referring to the recent school shooting at a Texas elementary school where a teen shot and killed 19 children and two adults. “The police chief of the Uvalde Police Department was asking janitors for key rings. They didn’t have any breaching tools. There’s two officers that were shot trying to breach the door. So we need to have protection gear so that we can effectively take an enforcement action.

“The issue becomes, is it going to be readily available to that SRO at the site. They’re the ones that are going to be using those materials, so we want to make sure to get it into their hands.”

Reid said that in a crisis situation, the officers also would have access through their computers to live camera feeds that the district established years ago when Michael Hanson was superintendent.

“We sat down and did site maps of every school site. We also plotted where every camera was, and then we came up with an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that’s still in effect, that in an emergency instance, like an active shooter, we could take into our Real Time Crime Center that video” and provide it to responding officers, Reid said. “That’s something that’s unique in California. Not many school districts have it. And you guys had the foresight to do that about a decade ago.”

“No to police, yes to university” one sign reads in Spanish. (GV Wire/Nancy Price)

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Then and Now: How Republican Senators Have Shifted Tone on Russia and Ukraine

DON'T MISS

Pope Francis in Critical Condition After Long Respiratory Crisis

DON'T MISS

Musk Gives All Federal Workers 48 Hours to Explain What They Did Last Week

DON'T MISS

Fresno State Suspends 2 Players, Removes Another Amid Gambling Investigation

DON'T MISS

Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners, Citing ‘Degrading’ Hostage Handovers

DON'T MISS

Officer Killed After Gunman Took Hostages at Pennsylvania Hospital

DON'T MISS

Kash Patel Plans to Move Up to 1,500 Workers Out of Washington

DON'T MISS

Fired Employees Fear Beloved Yosemite National Park Will Lose Its Luster

DON'T MISS

US and Ukraine Nearing Rare Earths Deal That Would Tighten Relationship

DON'T MISS

Trump Fires Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Two Other Military Officers

UP NEXT

Misty Her Calls for ‘Huge Mindset Shift’ at Fresno Unified as She Campaigns for Top Job

UP NEXT

Voletta Wallace, Notorious B.I.G.’s Mother and Keeper of His Legacy, Dies at 78

UP NEXT

Fed Judge Dismisses State Center Profs’ DEI Lawsuit

UP NEXT

Bullard Teacher Arrested for Inappropriate Behavior With a Minor, Principal Says

UP NEXT

Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Identifies as LGBTQ+, Survey Finds

UP NEXT

Arctic Blast Causes Massive Pileups, Power Outages Across East Coast

UP NEXT

‘A Step Backwards’: How Federal Threats to DEI Impact CA Schools

UP NEXT

Struggling Forever 21 Plans to Close 200 Stores in Possible 2nd Bankruptcy

UP NEXT

2 People Are Dead in a Small Plane Collision at a Southern Arizona Airport

UP NEXT

Fresno State Responds to Trump’s Title IX Changes, Says It Will Protect Students, Employees

Nancy Price,
Multimedia Journalist
Nancy Price is a multimedia journalist for GV Wire. A longtime reporter and editor who has worked for newspapers in California, Florida, Alaska, Illinois and Kansas, Nancy joined GV Wire in July 2019. She previously worked as an assistant metro editor for 13 years at The Fresno Bee. Nancy earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her hobbies include singing with the Fresno Master Chorale and volunteering with Fresno Filmworks. You can reach Nancy at 559-492-4087 or Send an Email

Fresno State Suspends 2 Players, Removes Another Amid Gambling Investigation

16 hours ago

Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners, Citing ‘Degrading’ Hostage Handovers

16 hours ago

Officer Killed After Gunman Took Hostages at Pennsylvania Hospital

16 hours ago

Kash Patel Plans to Move Up to 1,500 Workers Out of Washington

22 hours ago

Fired Employees Fear Beloved Yosemite National Park Will Lose Its Luster

22 hours ago

US and Ukraine Nearing Rare Earths Deal That Would Tighten Relationship

22 hours ago

Trump Fires Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Two Other Military Officers

22 hours ago

Less Is More: 5 Ingredient Dinners Are Easier Than You Think

22 hours ago

Trump-Putin Summit Preparations Are Underway, Russia Says

22 hours ago

Warren Buffett Offers Trump Some Advice While Celebrating Berkshire’s Success

22 hours ago

Then and Now: How Republican Senators Have Shifted Tone on Russia and Ukraine

WASHINGTON — Republican members of Congress have been some of the strongest critics of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, keeping in ...

2 hours ago

2 hours ago

Then and Now: How Republican Senators Have Shifted Tone on Russia and Ukraine

15 hours ago

Pope Francis in Critical Condition After Long Respiratory Crisis

16 hours ago

Musk Gives All Federal Workers 48 Hours to Explain What They Did Last Week

16 hours ago

Fresno State Suspends 2 Players, Removes Another Amid Gambling Investigation

16 hours ago

Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners, Citing ‘Degrading’ Hostage Handovers

16 hours ago

Officer Killed After Gunman Took Hostages at Pennsylvania Hospital

22 hours ago

Kash Patel Plans to Move Up to 1,500 Workers Out of Washington

22 hours ago

Fired Employees Fear Beloved Yosemite National Park Will Lose Its Luster

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend